South Africa v England | Cricket news live scores fixtures Cricket Highlights MyCricketHighlights 2016.South Africa and England will square-off in the second and final Twenty20 international (T20I) on Sunday at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg. Hosts won the first match played on Friday by three wickets. It was a nail-biting encounter as South Africa pulled it off on the very last ball of the match. The Proteas cannot lose the series whereas the English team can just hope to level it.
Visitors will come out hard at the South Africans after the former’s loss in the one day international (ODI) series and the first T20I. South Africa would want to remain ruthless and continue their winning spree having won the last four international matches on a trot (three ODIs and the recently concluded first T20I).Kyle Abbott stole a single to get Morris on strike. The tall Morris struck the next two balls for four and six. After a dot delivery, he hit twos off the last two balls. Topley had a chance to run out Abbott to force a tie and a super over but fumbled a throw from long-off.Morris finished with 17 not out off seven balls. A week earlier his 62 off 38 balls was a match-winner in the fourth one-day international.
The man of the match, though, was leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who took four for 21 to restrict England to 134 for eight after the tourists were sent in to bat."We let ourselves down with the bat," said England captain Eoin Morgan. "It is a huge credit to the bowling unit that we came close to defending that score."England looked set for a big total as opening batsmen Jason Roy and the in-form Alex Hales hit 38 off the first 3.3 overs before Roy clipped Kagiso Rabada to Hashim Amla at mid-wicket.
Tahir came on to bowl after the six-over power play had yielded 50 runs for Roy?s wicket. He struck with his fourth ball when Hales top-edged a sweep to backward square leg. JP Duminy held the catch despite being knocked to the ground by Rabada, who was also running for the ball.
Tahir followed up by dismissing Ben Stokes, Morgan and Moeen Ali. The latter two wickets were off successive balls and he narrowly missed a hat-trick when a googly went over Chris Jordan's middle stump.
South Africa made a confident start, with Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers putting on 31 for the first wicket. But England bowled well on a slow pitch and no batsman was able to dominate.All-rounder Ben Stokes and leg-spinner Adil Rashid were impressive in the middle overs, taking one for 19 and one for 24 respectively.
It seemed to be England's match when Jordan dismissed David Miller and David Wiese in the penultimate over. But that merely set the stage for Morris. The Delhi Daredevils, who paid over US$1-million for his services in the 2016 Indian Premier League, will feel they have made a good purchase.The visitors, though, had a chance to tie the scores and send the match to a ‘super over’ when paceman Reece Topley fluffed a straightforward opportunity to run out Kyle Abbott off the last delivery.
Having earlier compiled a modest total of 134 for eight, England strangled the run-rate on a wicket that both sides found difficult to score on and looked set to win after leaving South Africa needing 15 runs from Topley’s last over.
Number eight batsman Morris, however, clubbed a six and a four to lead the home team over the line.
The all-rounder also hit a swashbuckling half-century in the fourth game of the one-day series last Friday to help his side scramble a one-wicket triumph.England were put in to bat in the opening match of a series of two Twenty20s and blazed their way to 50 in six overs for the loss of opener Jason Roy (15).
The in-form Alex Hales (27) was then caught by JP Duminy at deep square-leg, despite a sickening collision with a charging Kagiso Rabada that thankfully left both fielders unhurt, and his dismissal sparked a slump to 81 for six.Leg-spinner Imran Tahir was the chief destroyer for South Africa as he equalled career-best figures of four for 21.
Jos Buttler top-scored with an unbeaten 32 from 30 balls.
Captain Faf du Plessis (25) led South Africa’s reply from the front but excellent bowling spells from Chris Jordan (3-23) and Moeen Ali (2-22) appeared to swing the contest England’s way until Morris produced his late cameo.The second game in the series, which is serving as a warm-up for the World Twenty20 in India next month, is in Johannesburg on Sunday.
